Free Microeconomics MCQs with Answers

1,742 Microeconomics MCQs from Economics, each with the correct answer and a written explanation of why it is correct. Free and unlimited, with no account needed.

Individual consumers, firms and markets are examined through demand and supply, elasticity, consumer choice, production, costs, revenue and the determination of prices and output. The topic also covers market structures such as perfect competition, monopoly and oligopoly, plus market failure, externalities and the distinction between microeconomic decisions and economy-wide outcomes.

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1,742 questions · page 26 of 88

  • A. Owners
  • B. Customers
  • C. Employees
  • D. None of the above

Explanation: Owners, customers, and employees all have an interest in the company's decisions and performance, so each is a stakeholder.

Correct answer: None of the above
  • A. horizontal
  • B. vertical
  • C. homogeneous
  • D. conglomerate

Explanation: A merger between two clothing firms combines businesses operating at the same stage and in the same industry, making it horizontal.

Correct answer: horizontal
  • A. horizontal
  • B. vertical
  • C. conglomerate
  • D. homogeneous

Explanation: A fiber producer supplies an input to a clothing firm, so their merger combines different stages of the same production chain.

Correct answer: vertical
  • A. contestable
  • B. perfectly competitive
  • C. oligopolistic
  • D. export-oriented

Explanation: Sales maximization is associated with managerial firms, especially oligopolies, where firms compete through advertising, product…

Correct answer: oligopolistic
  • A. managers need to be paid enough to stop them leaving the company
  • B. objectives such as profit are not maximized
  • C. short-run profits are maximized
  • D. long-run profits are maximized

Explanation: Satisficing means choosing an acceptable or satisfactory outcome rather than pushing an objective such as profit to its maximum possible…

Correct answer: objectives such as profit are not maximized
  • A. Like other firms in their industry.
  • B. growth maximisers.
  • C. leading firms in their industry
  • D. unlike other firms in their industry

Explanation: Satisficing firms seek an acceptable level of performance rather than the theoretical optimum, so their behaviour is generally similar to…

Correct answer: Like other firms in their industry.
  • A. Williamson's
  • B. classical economic
  • C. Marxist
  • D. monetarist

Explanation: Galbraith’s technostructure is the managerial group that controls large corporations, an idea consistent with Williamson’s managerial…

Correct answer: Williamson's
  • A. common; different parts of the firm
  • B. common; mangers
  • C. conflicting; managers
  • D. conflicting; different parts of the firm

Explanation: Behavioral theories view the firm as a coalition whose departments and groups may pursue conflicting interests, such as sales, production…

Correct answer: conflicting; different parts of the firm
  • A. growth.
  • B. sales revenue
  • C. managers utility
  • D. profits.

Explanation: The threat of takeover disciplines managers because poor performance can reduce the firm’s value and invite acquisition.

Correct answer: profits.
  • A. horizontal
  • B. vertical
  • C. conglomerate
  • D. homogeneous

Explanation: A conglomerate merger combines firms operating in unrelated industries, such as clothing and software.

Correct answer: conglomerate
  • A. sales revenue maximization
  • B. maximization the growth of sales revenue.
  • C. Sales maximization
  • D. long-run profit maximization.

Explanation: Growth maximisation means maximising the rate at which the firm expands, commonly measured through the growth of sales revenue.

Correct answer: maximization the growth of sales revenue.
  • A. AR minus AC is maximized
  • B. MC = MR
  • C. quantity sold is maximized
  • D. sales revenue is maximized

Explanation: A sales-revenue-maximising firm chooses the output at which total sales revenue is greatest, rather than where profit is greatest.

Correct answer: sales revenue is maximized
  • A. profit myopia
  • B. principal-agent problem.
  • C. merger mania.
  • D. moral hazard

Explanation: When ownership is separated from control, shareholders as principals must rely on managers as agents, creating the principal-agent…

Correct answer: principal-agent problem.
  • A. respect of other managers.
  • B. maximum profits.
  • C. job security
  • D. a large number of subordinates

Explanation: Williamson’s managerial utility model allows managers to pursue objectives such as status, job security and more subordinates instead of…

Correct answer: maximum profits.
  • A. does not know its MC and MR
  • B. has too much information
  • C. has too little information
  • D. The first and third option

Explanation: A firm may fail to maximise profit when it lacks information about its marginal cost and marginal revenue, or more generally has too…

Correct answer: The first and third option
  • A. sole proprietors
  • B. partnerships
  • C. public limited companies
  • D. monopolies

Explanation: In a public limited company, numerous shareholders own the firm while professional managers control its daily operations.

Correct answer: public limited companies
  • A. they are afraid of encouraging takeovers.
  • B. shareholders have little control over managers.
  • C. shareholders want higher dividends.
  • D. both the first and third option.

Explanation: Managers of public companies may pursue growth, security, or personal objectives because dispersed shareholders cannot closely control…

Correct answer: shareholders have little control over managers.
  • A. firms do not know how to maximize profits.
  • B. firms have other aims
  • C. it does not explain monopolistic competition
  • D. Both the first and second option

Explanation: The traditional model assumes firms know their profit-maximizing choices and pursue profit as their sole objective, but real firms may…

Correct answer: Both the first and second option
  • A. the impact of oil prices on car production
  • B. The impact of money on inflation
  • C. The impact of technology on economics growth
  • D. The impact of the deficit on saving

Explanation: Oil prices affect the costs and output decisions of car producers, an industry-level relationship studied in microeconomics.

Correct answer: the impact of oil prices on car production
  • A. Macroeconomic
  • B. Microeconomics
  • C. statements of description that can be tested
  • D. Statements of prescription that involve value judgments.Economics

Explanation: Positive economics describes what is and makes claims that can be checked against evidence.

Correct answer: statements of description that can be tested